Aye, that is the question*
*(Maybe not THE question, but A question)
Alas, we use “google”
as a verb now for “internet search.” There are other options, though I still
use Google because it reigns supreme.
I have found that
occasional googling (or Duck Duck Go-ing,
Swiss Cow-ing, Gibiru-ing Bing-ing and
more) can bring up some surprises about self. Hopefully they are nice
surprises, but the question is whether it should be part of anyone’s digital hygiene
practices.
I think at this
day and age where so much of life’s connectivity is digital, it is healthy to
look oneself up now and then. I know writers look up their published books. I
recall some on a chat board saying they are stalking their own titles. Stalking
suggests obsessional behavior. But doing a bi-annual search just in case
something very wrong (ouch) or something very right (yay) is floating out there—
is rather sensible.
But it is an
awkward feeling, I confess. If you are creeped out by looking yourself up, just
don’t. So far, I have found at least four nice surprises, (a review I was
unaware of that is now quoted and linked to my website, a blogger’s review of
one of my published articles, and more) and one not so happy thing, (a site purported
to give personal info on anyone and everyone decided to confuse my age with my
much-older DH.) But on the whole, I found what I expected to find. I’m not
famous, so that is about what I anticipated.
Two friends, who
insisted there couldn’t be anything about them on the Interwebs, were proven
wrong. There is something somewhere. But if you don’t mind, don’t care— that’s
fair. Don’t look. You don’t have to.
Like most things
in life, I straddle the middle ground: no staking/haunting, not avoiding. Once
or twice a year does it for me.
If you ever found
real surprises while googling self, I’d love to hear about it. At the very least,
it would make a good story.
